IT graduates see degrees as a waste of time

Almost half of recent IT graduates think they should have skipped their degrees and gone straight into work, according to research.

In a poll by FDM recruitment consultancy, 46% of IT graduates said their degree course had failed to provide them with relevant IT skills, and a 41% said, in hindsight, they would have skipped university and gone straight into work.

More than half (53%) of respondents said they would have preferred to complete vocational or on-the-job training.

A vast majority (93%) of the graduates said the government should shoulder some blame because it was not doing enough to help them get a foothold in the industry.

Rod Flavell, chief executive of FDM, called on the e-Skills sector skills council to address the issue of universities failing to offer training in the latest programming languages.

“It’s clear that more people than ever are open to the idea of vocational training to get the skills they need rather than automatically opting for university study and we will see this trend rise dramatically in the next few years,” he said.